2024年7月1日

1 July 2024

 

There have been measures recently on protecting the environment, for example, plastic is strongly discouraged for takeaway food; tourists will find no plastic bottled water or disposable toiletries in hotel rooms, etc. And why not? If we have paper carton lemon tea drinks, why can’t we have the same for plain water? But you see I digress, or have I? When we talk about one security, it is inevitable that it will relate to other issues as well.  Much like STEAM, it is never only science, technology, engineering, art, and/or mathematics; it is imperative that language communication, creativity, entrepreneurship and the like be parts of the STEAM education.  But I digress again.

 

According to the government website, “ecological security refers to a state in which the ecological environment essential for a country’s survival and development is free from or relatively free from destruction or threats, and the capability to maintain a sustained state of security by addressing major internal and external ecological problems to sustain such a state of security. It covers the security of water, land, atmosphere, biological species, etc. Ecological security is not only related to the daily life and physical wellbeing of the people, but also directly affects the country’s economic development as well as its long-term prosperity and stability. It concerns the rise and fall of a country and the survival of a nation”.

 

You must have been to countries where people drink water from taps. As Chinese, we rarely do that. We filter and/or boil it before drinking. There are countries where their hotel rooms are still filled with bottled water; even in the bathroom, they don’t want you to rinse with tap water.  Just imagine clean water supply was deprived, the drinking and cleaning became a crisis. Years ago, our school was informed for a temporary water suspension in a school morning. I quickly illustrated to the authorities that it was a bad idea, for students needed to wash up after PE lessons, meals, toilet, lab tasks; the related teachers and personnel needed to clean up as well, in addition to the threat of seasonal flu. A bad idea through and through.

 

Of course, you can see I was mad on the ground level, for it was a huge problem already for a school; if the problem was a national security issue, more people would ball their fists, figuratively.    

 

Anson Yang